eStara, a provider of multi-channel communications solutions that increase online revenue by linking buyers and sellers, Monday announced the launch of its real-time text chat solution. The new product enables eStara customers to offer its Click-to-Chat service in addition to eStara's flagship Click-to-Call solution, or as a stand-alone product.

Click-to-Call and Click-to-Chat solutions enable online shoppers to directly communicate with a human customer service representative at the click of a button. The company says, "Analyst research shows that enriching e-commerce with these solutions reduces shopping cart abandonment, increases transaction conversion rates and boosts revenue."

"Success in online sales is tied to unparalleled customer service. In today's environment, interacting with a human customer service representative is required for turning browsers into buyers," said John Federman, CEO of eStara, in a written statement. "For high-value and complex sales transactions, voice is still preferred by an overwhelming number of online shoppers. However, there's also tremendous value in providing customers with options like text chat, in order to handle lower-value sales or service-oriented inquires. Combined, these solutions empower customer service representatives to engage customers at key points during the online transaction to assure sales conversion and improve the customer experience."

As e-tailers try to get a leg up on one another, live chat is increasingly becoming a differentiator many sites are using to give customers real-time support. eStara faces several competitors in the marketplace including LivePerson, Crafty Syntax Live Help, LiveOffice and Oddcast's Vhost SitePal

Using its cross-channel data passing technology, eStara says both its Click-to-Call and Click-to-Chat solutions "ensure continuity of experience for online shoppers as they transition from the web to a voice or text chat conversation."

Cross-channel data passing creates a seamless experience by transferring information about the customer and the context of their online session directly to the customer service representative (CSR) at the time of call or chat initiation. The CSR's software can be configured to display this information directly on the agent's desktop screen, or it can use the incoming data values to trigger lookups into the company's own databases to retrieve related details (customer records, purchase history, billing information, etc.)

For more information, visit www.estara.com.

Devin Comiskey is the Managing Editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.

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